Advanced Movement
(This is a bit of a mess, will return to it at a later date unless someone wants to organise it better). Advanced Movement (For classic Series) Expanded Jump This very useful move seems to work only in TR1 and TR2. The name actually covers two separate moves, Delayed Jump and Delayed Action; you can do both in one jump. Delayed Jump is another way of doing a Longest Jump (see Basic Moves). Delay pressing Jump until the last moment before Lara drops off the edge, and she will go an extra distance about equal to half her foot length (3.5 tiny floor squares). This distance increase is the same no matter how far she falls, since you're jumping from a little farther forward. If you inch Lara forward for a Longest Jump and also delay Jump, you still get a maximum of improvement of 3.5 tiny squares. Delayed Action can be much larger. If you press Action when Lara is about 5 feet from landing, she can land a foot or more farther than if you held Action throughout the jump. This pair of images shows the difference when Lara jumps from nearly the maximum height which doesn't kill her. The first shows jumping with Action held the whole jump: Here, Action is pressed when she's about 5 feet off the ground. The farther you fall before pressing Action, the more distance you get, up to a point where Action has no effect at all (and Lara lands with her heels on the yellow line). The second picture shows the best distance of half a dozen tries. As your takeoff height decreases, the distance increase shrinks, until it's zero when you land at the same height as your takeoff. This nice video by T0mbr4id3r in Caves of TR1 compares no Action, early Action and delayed Action. Expanded Jump was discovered by TombRaiderSpeedrun, and T0mbr4id3r brought it to our attention. ExpandJump1.jpg|Action held for the whole jump ExpandJump2.jpg|Here, Action is pressed when she's about 5 feet off the ground. Pendulum Jump or Swing Jump Sometimes when you jump you land part way into a block and need to immediately do a running jump from there. If you just run forward you will fall off, however, if you "swing" slightly to the side (so you cover a little more ground) before turning forward again then you can usually cover enough distance to start a running jump. The discovery of the walk-run jump has mostly obsoleted this technique, but they can be combined for the shortest distance running jump setup possible. A good example of this is the fire room in Palace Midas. Avoiding bashes If you hit a wall in the middle of a jump then you bash against it and get knocked back, however, if you do a grab in mid-air you do not. This has all manner of uses. Tunnel Jumping A tunnel jump is a longer type of running jump that occurs when Lara hits the wall and ceiling both at the same time. It keeps the running jump speed for a longer time, meaning it's faster than simply running and also faster than just constantly doing simple running jumps. It is shown in the video to the right twice . As you may have noticed, it could also allow glitchless shortcuts in custom levels with similar geometry. Fake Grab If you fall backwards off a ledge and press grab WITHOUT holding it you can land on ledges below you (if you hold it you will just grab the ledge again). In some cases this can save a lot of time. This is sometimes labeled a "bug" due to it apparently not being intended by the designers, but we consider it an unintentional extension of the controls like curve jumps are. Curve Jump Possibly the most useful advanced technique of all. Core seemed to have not taken into account the curve jump possibilities that various levels have, allowing you to break huge sections of them. Curve jumps come in several forms; some are almost effortless, while others are incredibly hard. Flame-save Trick When you load a save, point sources of flame take a few moments to reach full strength. You can take advantage of this delay by speeding past the flame. Video 1 illustrates it using a crawlspace roll; this was deduced by Minor. Video 2 shows the use of a running jump and sprinting; the former was suggested by chreden and the latter by Minor. This is known to work in TR4-based custom levels. Action Vault vs Jump Vault Most players, even runners, are used to climbing ledges with action + forward (action vault). Using jump + action (jump vault) is some frames faster than that, but the runner must keep in mind that an action vault cancels possible hard wall hits, meaning the best course of action can depend on your previous movement. For example, if you stop sprinting, (a move that almost always ends with a hard wall hit) you might lose even more frames than you would save by doing a jump vault, therefore you should just use an action vault in this case. Turbo Wade A running jump can be done in two clicks high water, but it requires a lower spot first. Wade from the lower ledge to the higher one while holding jump. As soon as Lara reaches the two clicks high square, she will perform a running jump (as shown in video 1). Additionally, if you're wading in a one click high water square, you can allow the running motion by simply jumping. video 2 illustrates this in Lost City of Tinnos, probably where it's used the most. This can be very useful as wading is a really slow form of movement. Roll-Flip Move This allows you to jump up a series of blocks without moving too near the next block. Alternately jump with a twist (roll) and backflip; start with either. As here. There are only a few places where it's known to be useful. Works in TR's 2 - 5. Pointed out by apel. Diving Off The Ceiling In the 5 classics, if Lara dives and hits the ceiling, she will fall quicker, and drops much farther before her forward rotation gets her steep enough to die. She may drop as much as 4 times the height of a movable block and still roll with no damage. Usually you would do this at a tunnel that opens to a high place, but diving off the sky works if you're high enough. This video compares diving and jumping, and the third clip shows hitting a wall during the descent. This is a move, not a bug. Offset Jump In some games, Lara can stand on the edge of a step or ledge and jump "around" the edge of a ceiling. This allows her to catch a higher ledge than she could directly beneath it. This video shows a case in City of Vilcabamba in TR1. In some games she passes through the ceiling, as in Trenches of TR4: This move is known to be useful in some custom levels. It also works in TR's 2 - 4 (at least). Discovered by apel. Wall Bounce If you hit a wall at an angle (the angle determines how extreme the "bounce" is) then Lara turns much more tightly; this frequently makes it much easier to line up things, and also allows for things such as run-jump courses that would be impossible without it, it's also used by people all the time while sprinting (Caves of Kaliya is a good example of a level where it's used multiple times to allow sprinting in tight spaces). Edge Boost If you jump from a corner that is raised/uneven in some way at a certain range of angles (that seems to be the condition at least), then Lara gets "shifted" forwards and outwards a little and you gain more distance than a plain jump from the corner. It is illustrated in this video, when Lara jumps to the slope. A related thing is that people use this all the time underwater by making contact with corners/edges in a way that pushes them forwards slightly. Edge Driving The quad bike physics allow impressively fast movement speed while driving over edges. This video illustrates how the trick works. Due to the high speed, it is rather difficult to complete the move, resulting in a fall. Delayed Swan Dive Pressing Walk in the last possible frame to turn a forward jump into a swan dive will increase the total distance travelled. This can be theoretically used for dive bugs that normally wouldn't be possible without it. The distance difference is shown in this video. Cancels Cancels are some of the main optimisation techniques for runs, in some situations they save a lot of time, in others only a matter of seconds. Edge Roll If you roll right on the edge of a ledge, Lara "twitches" and then falls off. The main use of this is if you stumble on the edge of a ledge (as you can roll out of the stumble and keep moving). It also makes sure you move forwards as you fall (at least on TR3 there can be some weird bugs where you fall "flat" off a ledge if you don't do this). Edge rolling is faster than simply running off the edge, but this also means Lara will move farther. This can be good or bad, so use it wisely. Shooting Tricks UZI-like shooting This trick only works in Tomb Raider 4 and custom levels, which have a switch between automatic and manual aiming in Options. In manual mode, the game allows you to keep pressing Shoot button faster than Lara does, which means you can reach a really high rate of fire, almost as firing with UZI. It seems the speed is only limited by human capabillities, however the second shot has to be always delayed due to animation. The only negative thing is that you have to aim manually, so this trick can be only used in a direct confrontation with enemy, who must be in a similar size as Lara. In Tomb Raider Chronicles, this trick doesn't work, even though there's the option of switching between automatic and manual aiming. The reason behind this is that when Lara lands the first hit, she'll automatically start aiming at the target. A variation of this trick doesn't require changing aiming modes. If Lara is far enough from the target, she won't aim at him automatically, allowing the high rate of fire. Aiming with look Some weapons allow Lara to aim by looking around. This is used in TR3's City to quickly kill Sophia. It can also be used for Weapon and Flare Triggering. Long Distance Shooting Lara can shoot from a really long distance if she has aimed at the enemy before. It goes as following: start shooting the baddie you want to shoot from far away, but quickly turn around (so Lara stops shooting) without letting go of Action. Lara won't stop aiming at the target, so you can run anywhere you want and still be able to shoot at it. Quick Crawlspace Move When the ground beyond a crawlspace is at the level of the crawlspace's floor, replace the last forward crawl with drawing a weapon. Lara stands 4/10 of a second sooner. This video shows a crawl with Draw used, and a normal crawl. Timing this from the first crouching motion to both feet flat on the ground, it was found out that the first clip take 4.00 seconds, while the second takes 4.40 seconds. In the second clip you end up one walking step farther from the wall, but in the first clip you will cover the equivalent distance at running or sprinting speed, not crawling speed. Reported by MMAN. Works in any TR that has the crawl animation. Fast Crawlspace Exit Another type of quick exit, by using a crawl corner bug, from TR5. We have no confirmation if it works in TR3, TR4 and custom levels, but it most likely does. From jarekhanzelka. Drop-Catch Trick Works in TR4, TR5 and custom levels that have flares. At an opening above the floor, this move can yield a third way to leave a crawlspace quickly. Approach the edge at an angle as shown, with a burning flare. Hold Action and Draw Weapon long enough for one cycle of flare aircreep and then release both keys; she drops. If you approach the edge straight on, it requires two aircreep cycles to drop. This is also a handy way to start aircreep from a crawlspace. The drop-catch trick can also allow wall transfer at a corner. A useful spot for it is not yet known. Discovered by apel. Fast Turn Move You probably know this, but think of it another way: it's hard to make accurate small turns while a weapon is drawn. That's because Lara goes to full turning speed at once while a weapon is held (handy for combat); she increases her turning speed more slowly with none. Lara takes a little more than a quarter turn to reach full speed weaponless, and this takes a third of a second less while holding one. Here's a video that shows both a normal turn, and one with guns out. Of course, you must have the weapon out before the time for the turn comes. Works in TR's 1 - 5. Pointed out by xRikux89. Stumble Cancelling This is where the "meat" of cancelling comes in. There are two kinds of stumble, a small one (from hops) and large ones (from falls longer than hops). Small stumbles can be cancelled with a forward jump or by just holding run as you fall. Large stumbles can be cancelled by rolls or a flare cancel (detailed later). However, in quite a few cases a roll will either take the same amount of time as waiting for the stumble to finish, or be slower (because you will have to turn around again), in these cases you can flare cancel, or do this: If you plan for a large stumble by flipping in the air beforehand you can roll as soon as you hit the ground and be facing forwards again. This is slower than a flare cancel but a good alternative when you need to save flares. Forward Stumble Cancel This video shows stumble cancels while holding Forward. When the drop is short, if Lara is facing a vertical wall, the stumble is canceled entirely; otherwise she bends her knees a little. On higher drops, Lara can turn during the crouch. She may drop from a ladder, a cliff edge, a zip line, or run or jump off a higher level. These moves work in TR's 1 - 5 and many custom levels. The moves have been in use by speedrunners since at least 2005, but jarekhanzelka pointed out the need to use Forward early in 2012. Grab Cancel This seems to be a technique exclusive to TR1 and 2. If you are making a jump where you land in a large stumble but DO NOT take damage from it, then grab just before Lara puts her arms in the air (the point where grabbing becomes impossible), and you will land in a small stumble instead. This technique is very specific so far, but it has only been discovered recently, so it may have further depths (and uses in the later games). Flare Cancel This is a special technique that only works in Tomb Raider games where flares are available. If you hit the ground while in the animation where Lara throws away a flare and hold a movement key, you cancel out of the large stumble completely. While it allows for various small tweaks, the best thing about this technique is that it allows you to pull off "impossible" moves at times, for instance you can fall in the path of a boulder (where you would normally stumble and die), but cancel out of the stumble and instantly evade it (rather than get around it in an alternative, slower, way), the same kind of thing can also apply to collapsing tiles. This trick can also cancel other animations besides stumbles. The standing up animation, for example, caused by the crouch pull-up, as shown in this video. Using this can save up to 18 frames, which is not as much time as a flare cancel would save otherwise, thus making it worth only when you have enough flares to waste. When leaving a crawlspace, the standing up animation also occurs. You can flare cancel it in that case as well. The ending portion of rolls are considered as standing up animations too and can also be cancelled, allowing very quick turns. Perpetual Flare Cancel This glitch allows Lara to automatically cancel out of all stumbles for an indefinite time period. Much like the arm jam glitch, Lara won't be able to draw her guns or grab ledges. The state will also wear off if Lara comes to a full stop. To perform, Lara must be in possession of at least one flare, although this flare won't actually be used. Just as Lara is rising up after crawling, hold the flare key. You must also hold a movement key (Forward etc.), as the state will otherwise immediately wear off. You should see Lara skip a piece of the stand up animation (in effect a flare cancel), and point her left hand out as if holding a flare. From now on, every time you land into a stumble, it will automatically be canceled as long as you keep holding buttons to keep moving. This form of the glitch only works in TR3. A second way to do this bug works in both TR2 and TR3. If Lara is hanging on a ladder, she does an animation to place her feet on the rungs. If you press Jump and the flare key during this animation she starts drawing a flare, but her arm sticks in the bent position and she doesn't actually draw it. But when she lands as long as you keep moving Lara performs a flare cancel every time she lands. This perpetual flare cancel is maintained by all the arrow keys, Roll, vertical jumping and floating in water. You can stop moving for up to half a second and still keep the bug going. So you can even bump into a wall and not lose it. Here's a video from TR2's Venice that shows this second form, which was reported by chreden. Action Cancel If you are in a fall where you would normally stumble, if you hold action while landing on a switch, item, or keyhole you cancel out of the stumble and perform the action. Mostly this works in TR1 and TR2, but in TR3, it also occurs at the detonator of Nevada Desert(4:00), and diving onto the quadbike (2:43). Swing Cancel When you jump forward and grab a ledge, Lara will 'swing' for a short amount of time. To avoid this, let go of action (during the swing) and immediately press action again. She will now be able to climb up without having to wait for the swing animation to end. This technique may not save much time alone, but doing it several times adds up. Category:Movement